New 'military' buys Congress

Republican president Dwight Eisenhower warned the nation in his farewell speech of the danger of the military and industry (the military-industrial complex) gaining too much power. In the original copy of that speech, he labeled it "The Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex."

He realized that there was an alliance between the military and manufacturers of weapons and machines of war. He also saw that members of Congress were being "bought" with profits of war.

Why he deleted the most important entity in the complex is the big question. The military and industry have gained this "unwarranted power" because Congress gave it to them; and Congress gave it to them because "we have the best democracy that money can buy."

Today this military-industrial complex includes the drug industry, insurance industry, etc., that exert such influence over lawmakers with their armies of lobbyists. What democracy we ever had is no more.

What irony, that with our military might, we try to force on others what we have lost.

C.E. Swain

Carthage

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Email this article

New 'military' buys Congress

Republican president Dwight Eisenhower warned the nation in his farewell speech of the danger of the military and industry (the military-industrial complex) gaining too much power. In the original